Bourbon fans can expect more bottles of Eagle Rare, W. L. Weller, Blanton’s Single Barrel and other Buffalo Trace brands to hit store shelves, but they’re going to have to wait at least a few more years.
While Buffalo Trace Distillery is aggressively moving forward with a planned $200 million expansion in order to better meet growing global demand, the company recently announced that its stock on-hand is limited and that allocations will continue for the foreseeable future.
“While we have steadily increased bourbon production over the years, demand for our brands continues to outpace supply,” Kris Comstock, senior marketing director, said in a statement. “Growth will be modest over the next few years, dictated by the number of barrels filled years ago. Most will be sold in the United States, where demand continues to rise.”
Global growth for the whiskey category is up 4 percent, and the category has grown by 6.5 percent in the United States, according to International Wine and Spirits Research. Buffalo Trace reports double-digit growth for its brands.
The distillery has already ramped up production this summer to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the current and continuing expansion will certainly help to rectify the shortage over time.
“This year we plan to match the all-time high of barrel production here at Buffalo Trace, set in 1973,” said Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley. “Next year we’ll exceed that and set new production records.”
Two existing office buildings have been or are being converted back into barrel-aging warehouses, with a combined capacity of 200,000 barrels between them. New barrel warehouses are also being built on an additional 200 acres of farmland the distillery acquired a few years ago, and represent the distillery’s first significant expansion in barrel-aging capacity since 1951.
Buffalo Trace has already broken ground on the first warehouse and expects to build a new warehouse every four months for the next several years, at a cost of about $7 million each, plus an additional $21 million to stock with filled barrels. The first barrels will roll into the new warehouse in 2018.
Buffalo Trace is also moving and expanding its bottling operation, and will install larger cookers and additional fermenters in its distillery for added capacity. It’s a significant expansion that speaks volumes about Buffalo Trace’s faith in the continued growth of the whiskey category and of the company but, like making a fine Kentucky bourbon, only time will tell.
“We will not compromise taste nor quality,” Comstock said. “So rather than empty barrels prematurely, we’ll continue to wait for barrels to mature and allocate bourbon when it’s ready, while increasing production for the future.”